I have been scouring YouTube for the most action-filled G-8 protest excerpts, and this montage above seems to have the goods on the others. Draw your own conclusions on what the protests mean. My advice to G-8 leaders? In one word, teleconferencing. There were some notions that anti-globalization protests were becoming less virulent and violent, but this G-8 shattered any such notions after last year's G-8 summit in Russia had fewer side events. The lesson here might not be good news for globalization: ironically, these summits might be better held in totalitarian states if security is the overriding concern. At any rate, Bloomberg offers commentary on how the German security apparatus appears surprised at the magnitude of these protests:
Anti-globalization protesters blocked roads leading to the Group of Eight summit venue in the northern German seaside resort of Heiligendamm today, as they attempted to disrupt the arrival of world leaders and delegates.Demonstrators avoided roadblocks and crossed through oat fields and forests to approach a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) barbed- wire perimeter fence surrounding the hotel complex, blocking access to Heiligendamm from the press center 8 kilometers to the west at Kuehlungsborn.
``The organizers are very satisfied because so many people came to join us,'' said Sabine Zimpel, a spokeswoman for the protest groups. Some 15,000 people gathered for two main blockades at the fence -- where at one point both entrances were sealed off -- and around Rostock airport, where G-8 delegations were arriving, she said. ``It was a success,'' Zimpel said.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to quell violent demonstrators. Eight officers were injured in the clashes, which police said did not interrupt German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, from welcoming leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to Heiligendamm. Leaders arrived by helicopter from Rostock airport...
Police were ``surprised by the size and scope of violence'' in Rostock, [deputy parliamentary leader] Bosbach said.
``The violence, of course it overshadows the event,'' Constanze Stelzenmueller, director of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said in an interview. ``What I find startling is just how organized these guys are. What I would like to know is who these people speak for.''
Where do you draw the line between genuine concern for the losers of globalization and hooliganism? It's hard to tell and I'm not entirely sure myself whether G-8 summits, World Bank/IMF meetings, the World Economic Forum etc. are really effective staging places for anti-globalization forces in getting their ideas across. Sure they get a lot of air time, but to what end? Nevertheless, the anti-globalization game moves on...
